We went to Mt. Narukami today. Around 9:00 AM we arrived at Kiryuu Station, and then took the bus to the entrance of one of the trails. At the bottom of the mountain we found the plant of Viola eizanensis. var. simplicifolia (Hitotsuba Ezo Sumire) after flowering. This kind of the violet is really weird, because their leaves are pretty different from the usual Viola eizanensis (Eizan Sumire). We found more of them with nice flowers when we were closer to the top of the mountain. We saw a beautiful bluebird, Cyanoptila cyanomelana (Ooruri) at the top of Mt. Narukami.

April 28, 2009

This morning we left Yoshida Station for Tsubame Sanjou Station, and then took the Shinkansen to Nagaoka. From there we took local train to Ojiya. Why did we do there? Because I wanted to find some yellow violets before we were back home. We stayed there only for a couple of hours, but we found lots of the yellow violets.

Luehdorfia japonica (Gifu-chou).I have never seen this kind of butterfly before.The larval host plants are wild gingers species of the genus Asarum.

Anemone pseudoaltaica (Kikuzaki Ichige).

Sado Island.

The closeup of Sado Island.

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).

Hepatica nobilis var. japonica f. magna (Oo Misumi-sou).This plant has so many variations of the colors and shapes. That is why the local people try to protect this plant from being stolen.

Viola yezoensis (Hikage Sumire).

Viola yezoensis (Hikage Sumire).We found these kind only at a small area at the bottom of the mountain.

Viola grypoceras var. rhizomata (Tsuru Tachitsubo Sumire)?

Acanthopanax spinosus (Yama Ukogi).A woman was picking these young leaves to eat.I've heard people in Yonezawa area of Yamagata have this plant. The place is a little close to that area, so they may have the similar food custom.

Jonnobi-kan. The local hot spring place. We took bath before going back to the Maki Station.

About Me

Thank you for visiting my blog. Here you can see some wild flowers and animals I found here and there in Japan. You can see most of them at the place which is not so far from where I used to live in Tokyo.
Now we are in Fairbanks, Alaska, so I will upload some more pictures from our daily lives and the northern wilderness.
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